The Faculty's Higher Specialist Training programme in Sports and Exercise Medicine (HST SEM) received formal accreditation from the Medical Council of Ireland in early 2017. The training programme was signed off by the Minister for Health, Mr Simon Harris, in March 2017, and the first SpR intake took place in July 2019.

Programme Director: Dr Jim O’Donovan MB BCh BAO, FFSEM, MICGP, MFSEM(UK), MSc (Sports & Exercise Medicine), MCFP (Canada) Dip Sports Med (CASEM)

Dr Jim O’Donovan is a Fellow of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine and a Member of the Irish College of General Practitioners. He was Chairman of the 2019 FSEM Annual Scientific Conference ‘Movement is Therapy’. He is the programme director for Higher Specialist Training in Sports and Exercise Medicine (HST SEM) in Ireland. He completed his training with a fellowship at the Sports Surgery Clinic, and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

He currently works as a consultant sports medicine physician in the following positions –
• Head of Medical Services, Sport Ireland Institute, National Sports Campus
• Sports Surgery Clinic, Santry
• National Orthopaedical Hospital, Cappagh
• Olympic Federation of Ireland, Chief Medical Officer Tokyo Olympic games

Previous roles have been
• Chief Medical Officer Team Ireland, Minsk European Games 2019
• Lead doctor at Leinster Rugby 2017
• Head of Medicine at Munster Rugby 2016
• Team Doctor Team Ireland, Rio Olympic games 2016
• Team Doctor Team Ireland Rio Paralympic games 2016
• Team Doctor Team Ireland, Baku European Games 2015

He has published chapters in the recent 2020 Edition of ‘Brukner & Khan's Clinical Sports’ and ‘Triathlon Medicine’, and research areas of focus are running injuries and patellofemoral pain.